Bugsy he/him Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 (edited) Hey everyone, I've read most of Sanderson's books, but I just joined the forums. Since I've joined, I've realized I know a hell of a lot less about the Cosmere than I thought. I've read the "Cosmere 101" thread, and while it was pretty helpful, I'm still not 100% on everything. In this thread, I'm basically going to say my current understanding of the Cosmere in hopes of receiving corrections or additions from my fellow 17th sharders. So, here it goes... In the beginning, Adonalsium created the Cosmere through use of his powers. Eventually, he created the humans. 16 of these humans managed to defeat Adonalsium and splinter his power into 16 aspects, or shards. These shards were then collected by the people who shattered Adonalsium and the shard holders spread out across the galaxy. Originally, the shard holders controlled the shards, but eventually the shards' "Intent" began to shape the personalities of the holder. Shards can also divest themselves of part of their energy and invest it in something else by performing Investiture, which can be reflected in virtually limitless ways. These shards also power the various systems of magic found across the Cosmere. In the Cosmere, there are 3 realms. The physical realm, or "real world", the cognitive realm, in which every object contains its own impressions of self, which are based largely on how others view said object, and the spiritual realm. The spiritual realm appears to be 'where' the magical powers are stored, as it is said that Hemarulgy steals a piece of the soul that grants powers. Losing part of your soul seems to be lethal, as victims of Hemarulgy seem to die when their powers are stolen, although that could be due to instructions of Ruin. Finally, a malignant shard named Odium is intent on tracking down and destroying other shards until he is the sole remaining shard holder. He does this by "shattering" the shards, which scatters its power and kills the holder. The remaining splinters retain the shard's intent, but have no controlling force and therefore is unable to further oppose Odium Edited for typos Edited February 12, 2016 by Bugsy6912 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voidus Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 More or less accurate, though there are 16 Shards not 13, not sure if that was a typo or a mistake.Some additional information:Each world has 'perpendicularities' that allow for transfer between realms (So far we've only seen it used for transfer between the physical and cognitive) in some cases these have been known to be Shardpools (The liquid manifestation of a Shards Investiture) but we're not sure if that is the only type of perpendicularity or if it's just one.'Worldhoppers' exist, characters who can travel between the various Shardworlds for various purposes. Perhaps the best known of these is the infamous Hoid. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luminos Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 More or less. I'd say Investiture is a bit more generalized than that. If I have it correct, its something along the lines of being all manifestations of a shards power across all 3 realms. Spiritual realm is kinda sorta the platonic heaven of ideas, whereas cognitive realm is where those ideas are mediated and reflected back by the minds perception of the physical realm. I have no idea what to make of "visiting" the cognitive realm, since that would seem to create a regress (is there a realm that has the ideas formed by people perceiving in the cognitive realm? A meta cognitive realm?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voidus Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 More or less. I'd say Investiture is a bit more generalized than that. If I have it correct, its something along the lines of being all manifestations of a shards power across all 3 realms. Spiritual realm is kinda sorta the platonic heaven of ideas, whereas cognitive realm is where those ideas are mediated and reflected back by the minds perception of the physical realm. I have no idea what to make of "visiting" the cognitive realm, since that would seem to create a regress (is there a realm that has the ideas formed by people perceiving in the cognitive realm? A meta cognitive realm?) Not unless someone in the cognitive realm conceives of the meta cognitive realm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rustbringer he/him Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 I see the cognitive realm as sort of a quantum reality where the observer percieves information of the world by its cognitive aspect, consisting primarily of the subjects identity as its been viewed as well as how the that identity comes to view itself due to its interactions within the physical realm. Subjects with stronger self identity decay slower than others when altered or removed from its physical connection, but are also more difficult to influence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paragrin she/her Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 Just a couple things. We don't actually know how or why Adonalsium died - it may have been the original Shardholders, maybe not. And Shattering applies to Adonalsium, Splintering applies to a Shard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PallonianFire he/him Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 We don't actually know how or why Adonalsium died - it may have been the original Shardholders, maybe not Well, if certain characters know what they're talking about, then we do know who did it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugsy he/him Posted February 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 (edited) Secret History spoilers Just a couple things. We don't actually know how or why Adonalsium died - it may have been the original Shardholders, maybe not. And Shattering applies to Adonalsium, Splintering applies to a Shard. I believe the shattering was discussed in Secret History. And thanks for the definition of terms, their usages always confused me a bit! Edited February 13, 2016 by Voidus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volratho Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 Losing part of your soul seems to be lethal, as victims of Hemarulgy seem to die when their powers are stolen, although that could be due to instructions of Ruin. It is possible to survive this but you probably would not want to... WoB: https://twitter.com/BrandSanderson/status/695365263240212480 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugsy he/him Posted February 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 It is possible to survive this but you probably would not want to... WoB: https://twitter.com/BrandSanderson/status/695365263240212480 Potentially an effect like a Kandra missing a spike? Also, any idea if multiple powers could be stolen this way or if it would destroy the soul to the point where nothing else is salvageable? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ookla the Absent Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Also, the 16 may or may not have all been human. I've never been entirely sure on that one, but it has been confirmed that there were other sentient races present when Adonalsium shattered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jondesu he/him Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Also, the 16 may or may not have all been human. I've never been entirely sure on that one, but it has been confirmed that there were other sentient races present when Adonalsium shattered. I think it's assumed that at least one Shardholder may be a dragon, or at the very least there were some present or nearby at the time. I wonder what Brandon's dragons will be like (since we've only seen a letter presumably written by one, nothing more). jW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natc Posted February 14, 2016 Report Share Posted February 14, 2016 (edited) Potentially an effect like a Kandra missing a spike? Also, any idea if multiple powers could be stolen this way or if it would destroy the soul to the point where nothing else is salvageable?Well, kandra souls are intact (in the mistwraith way) by default, what the Blessings apparently do is fix some sort of cognitive "block" inherent to the mistwraith species, restoring proper sapience. With a human that gets spiked part of your soul is literally gone, which would probably be worse. Especially if it wasn't a spike for some sort of magic ability. What if you're a human without Strength? Or emotional stability . . . That's like simultaneously destroying a part of your DNA, relating to a vital function, in every cell in your body, and having the effects occur immediately. Only healing using your cognitive perception of your complete soul can cure that, and there probably comes a point where you just patched it one too many times. Metaphorically speaking, RNA reverse transcription isn't a very trustworthy process with how relatively unstable RNA is. The cognitive realm is similarly known to be capable of fudging details both accidentally and intentionally by people, with dangerously tangible results. On the matter of surviving a spiking at all, well when you having a gaping hole in your body (often the heart) and are bleeding profusely it probably often became a difficult problem to surmount for the victims Edited February 14, 2016 by natc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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